Welcome to Manufacturing Minute!

I'm glad you're here.

Let's get to it.

🚨In the News

Samsung just delayed their $37 billion Texas chip plant from 2024 to 2026.

The reason? "Not enough customers."

Hmm. Wonder what's really going on here?

You don't get 91.8% done building a facility the size of a small city, with $4.7 billion in taxpayer subsidies, and suddenly realize "oops, nobody wants our chips."

Something tells me there's more to this story than weak smartphone demand and TSMC competition.

But hey, what do I know?

🏭 Manufacturing Minute

Remember that elementary school game where you whisper something into the next person's ear and watch it morph into something completely different by the time it reaches the last person?

That's exactly what's happening in most manufacturing companies with their digital transformation efforts.

The Setup

Picture this organizational chart:

• IT has their KPIs (uptime, security, standardization)

• OT has theirs (production, efficiency, safety)

• Digital transformation team has theirs (innovation, modernization, ROI)

• Smart manufacturing team has theirs (connectivity, analytics, optimization)

Each with their own budgets, their own meetings, their own success metrics. Each speaking a slightly different language.

The Game Begins

Plant manager whispers: "We need to reduce downtime on Line 3"

Stop 1 - OT Team: "We need better visibility into equipment health"

Stop 2 - IT Team: "We need to upgrade our network infrastructure to support industrial IoT"

Stop 3 - Digital Team: "We need a comprehensive digital strategy with cloud integration"

Stop 4 - Smart Manufacturing Team: "We need a comprehensive digital twin strategy with AI-powered predictive analytics integrated into our enterprise data lake"

Add in some offshore resources (who missed the original context), a few "tactical interruptions" (budget cuts, new initiatives, leadership changes), and maybe a consultant or two who speaks fluent buzzword...

Meanwhile, Line 3 is still down.

A Radical Idea

Here's some revolutionary thinking: What if we put digital and smart manufacturing in the same organization? Same agenda, same pulse, same priorities.

I've seen this telephone game play out at too many companies. The person designing your analytics dashboard has never stood on a plant floor during a crisis. The person troubleshooting your connectivity issue doesn't understand why that 30-second delay matters when you're trying to prevent a batch from going bad.

But imagine if they worked together from day one. If the person building your data infrastructure actually had to explain to the plant manager why Line 3 keeps having problems. If your digital transformation roadmap was written by someone who understood both the technology AND the production schedule.

The Real Cost

This isn't just about organizational efficiency (though that matters). It's about speed. By the time that original problem gets translated through four different departments, Line 3 has been down for six months, you've spent $200K on consultants, and your best maintenance tech has quit out of frustration.

Meanwhile, your competition figured out how to fix their Line 3 equivalent in three weeks because their digital and operations teams actually talk to each other.

Making It Work

The companies I see getting this right treat digital transformation like what it actually is: operations improvement with better tools. Not a separate initiative. Not a technology project. Just a better way to solve the same problems they've always had.

Less telephone game, more actual conversation.

What's the most ridiculous transformation of priorities you've witnessed in the digital transformation telephone game? Hit reply - I collect these stories like some people collect vintage guitars.

P.S., Whether you're trying to make sense of Industry 4.0, struggling with legacy systems, or just need a sounding board from someone who's navigated similar waters, let's talk. Book Your 30-Minute Strategy Call →

P.P.S., if you are a nerd (like me), the next installment of my Manufacturing-themed D&D comic is out! See it here: